


Schrödinger's Cat

by suzume_tori



Category: Speed Racer (2008)
Genre: Gen, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-14
Updated: 2008-05-14
Packaged: 2017-11-28 15:50:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/676154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suzume_tori/pseuds/suzume_tori
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the mask is removed, it isn't the face he expected or wanted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Schrödinger's Cat

**Schrödinger's Cat**  
.... _or, 'Racer X is both Rex and Not Rex (until he isn't)'_

He'd wanted it to be Rex badly enough that, for a moment, he was only confused. Why was the face so strange?

It wasn't a strange face - not really. It was a perfectly normal—maybe _nice_ , even—face. But it wasn't the wrong face, and Rex was dead, and maybe he'd been hoping too hard, if he'd begun to believe.

"I'm sorry," the wrong-faced man offered. The words meant almost nothing; any words would be wholly inadequate for the truth: that Speed had lost his brother again—had never really _had_ him again in the first place.

There was an odd twinge beneath the thick blue cotton of Speed's uniform shirt—it felt something like betrayal. Everything Rex had stood for was falling apart like card-houses—he'd _felt_ Rex in X, the same way he'd felt the best place to deploy the Mach 5's jacks to bridge a jump perfectly. Burns had completed his last turn with his eyes closed, and Speed couldn't even pick out the feel of his own brother's driving. Of course—upon consideration, the bit about the closed eyes was probably as much a lie as the rest of his once-cherished stories of the racing legend—so why couldn't Speed's instincts fail to measure up to legend, as well?

It was like chasing ghosts.

"I wish you'd kept it on," he heard himself murmur, voice hoarse, "I wish you could have left me that hope."  



End file.
